nuclear-news

Growing anxiety of Tokyo residents about nuclear radiation

Radiation leaking from Fukushima power plant should be monitored more closely Mainichi Daily News 10 June Residents of the Tokyo metropolitan area are becoming increasingly concerned about levels of radiation spreading to their neighborhoods from the tsunami-hit Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant. There are some areas called “hot spots,” where high levels of radiation have been detected even though they are far away from the crippled nuclear plant. When radioactive substances leak from a nuclear facility as a result of an accident and spread through the sky, they fall on some limited areas depending on geographical features, wind direction and rain, resulting in high concentration of radiation in these areas…… Continue reading →

June 10, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | - Fukushima 2011 | Leave a comment

Video of Fukushima nuclear whistleblower

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/06/09/3240251.htm Nuke worker speaks out about tsunami taboo VIDEO ABC News By North Asia correspondent Mark Willacy A former worker at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan says the operator ignored warnings about a large tsunami hitting the facility.Jun 9, 2011 Continue reading →

June 10, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | - Fukushima 2011, Resources -audiovicual | Leave a comment

India – another nuclear-capable missile test

India tests nuclear-capable missile Express Tribune , 10 June By AFP BHUBANESWAR: India tested a short-range nuclear-capable missile along its eastern coast on Thursday, an official said, as part of the country’s efforts to build up its atomic deterrent.

The surface-to-surface Prithvi-II missile was fired from a range in the eastern state of Orissa and hit its target in the Bay of Bengal successfully, the defence ministry official said.The Prithvi, which is domestically built and developed, can carry nuclear or conventional payloads and has already been inducted into the armed services.

India’s Defence Research Development Organisation is developing a series of missiles as part of the country’s deterrent strategy against neighbouring Pakistan and China which also have nuclear weapons…..http://tribune.com.pk/story/185422/india-tests-nuclear-capable-missile/

June 10, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | India, weapons and war | Leave a comment

The fallacy of nuclear fallout shelters’ supposed safety

Citizen Cold Warriors in the United States were expected to be able to reconcile these two diametrically opposed thoughts: A nuclear war can destroy all life on earth. You will survive if you build a family fallout shelter….. Fallout can drift in unpredictable directions for thousands of miles over a period of years.

How The US Was Supposed to Survive a Nuclear Holocaust With 9 Inches of Concrete Gizmodo, 9 June 11, Susan Roy — The American people have a well-documented history of panicking during crises. Is it any wonder then that, when faced with possible nuclear annihilation, the US government would use any ploy available to maintain public order? Bomboozled by Susan Roy explains.

In George Orwell’s 1984, citizens of the totalitarian state of Oceania were required to accomplish the impossible task of holding two contradictory ideas in their minds and accepting both of them: War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. Orwell called this “Doublethink.” Continue reading →

June 10, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | history, safety, USA | Leave a comment

Nuclear power plant fire

Electrical Fire Knocks Out Spent Fuel Cooling at Nebraska Nuke Plant by John Sullivan, Special to ProPublica June 9, A fire in an electrical switch room on Tuesday briefly knocked out cooling for a pool holding spent nuclear fuel at the Fort Calhoun nuclear plant outside Omaha, Neb., plant officials said.

The safety of deep pools used to store used radioactive fuel at nuclear plants has been an issue since the accident at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant in March. If the cooling water a pool is lost, the used nuclear fuel could catch fire and release radiation.

As ProPublica reported earlier, fire safety is a continuing concern at the country’s 104 commercial reactors, as is the volume of spent fuel piling up at plants……http://www.propublica.org/article/electrical-fire-knocks-out-spent-fuel-cooling-at-nebraska-nuke-plant

June 10, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Guards asleep at Arkansas nuclear power plant?

Audio KUAR radio newsAllegation: Guards Were Sleeping At Arkansas Nuclear One, 10 June http://www.kuar.org/kuarnews/25606-report-guards-were-sleeping-at-arkansas-nuclear-one.html

By Michael Hibblen The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is investigating reports that guards at the Arkansas Nuclear One power plant near Russellville were sleeping while on duty.

“These guards were in staging areas where they are expected to remain ready and alert should they be called upon, not at century posts or monitoring stations, but regardless, we take these issues seriously,” said Mike Bowling, a spokesman for Entergy Nuclear, which operates the plant. Photos allegedly capture three guards reclining with their eyes closed and a fourth …

June 10, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Resources -audiovicual | Leave a comment

European Ministers argue over nuclear power safety tests

VIDEO MEPs split over nuclear ‘stress tests’ BBC News 9 June 11MEPs have clashed over plans for “stress tests”, which are due to be carried out on nuclear facilities in the EU.There were angry scenes during the Commission statement on 9 June 2011, which caused Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger to appeal for calm.

Mr Oettinger was outlining plans for the tests – ordered in the wake of Japan’s Fukushima disaster – which are designed to see how Europe’s nuclear facilities are able to withstand natural or man-made disasters.

The so-called stress tests will be performed on Europe’s 143 working reactors and other atomic installations and will consider a range of factors, including seismic activity, flooding, and power loss at reactors.

But German Green MEP Rebecca Harms dismissed the plans as a “paper check” designed to “downplay the risks of nuclear power”.Ms Harms attacked the voluntary nature of the tests, saying it left the checks “largely in the hands of operators”……http://news.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/hi/europe/newsid_9503000/9503899.stm

June 10, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | EUROPE, safety | Leave a comment

Merkel calls on lawmakers to back moves to end nuclear energy

Merkel Asks Lawmakers to Back Shift From Nuclear NYT, By JUDY DEMPSEY June 9, 2011 BERLIN — Calling Germany’s plan to phase outnuclear energy by 2022 a “Herculean task,” Chancellor Angela Merkel told lawmakers on Thursday that the country was poised to lead the world in renouncing nuclear energy. Continue reading →

June 10, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Germany, politics | Leave a comment

UN reports on Syria’s nuclear program

U.N. Nuclear Watchdog Presses Case Against Syria, NYT, By DAN BILEFSKY June 9, 2011 UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations nuclear watchdog voted Thursday to report Syria to the Security Council, citing Syria’s construction of a covert nuclear reactor and its failure to cooperate with investigators, diplomats said……Citing a lack of confidence that Syria’s nuclear program is for peaceful purposes and pointing to a history of concealment by Damascus, the I.A.E.A. resolution says that the destroyed Dair Alzour site was “very likely a nuclear reactor and should have been declared by Syria.”

The 15-member Security Council has the power to rebuke Syria by urging it to cooperate with the I.A.E.A. and imposing sanctions against the country, as it has done in the case ofIran’s nuclear program. But Russia and China, two veto-wielding members of the Security Council, voted against the resolution, underlining international divisions over how to approach Damascus and signaling that punitive measures against the Syrian government were unlikely.

Syria has said the Dair Alzour site was a non-nuclear facility and has denied having a secret nuclear program. It has urged the I.A.E.A. to focus on Israel and allegations about its own covert nuclear activities…..http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/10/world/middleeast/10nations.html

June 10, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | secrets,lies and civil liberties, Syria | Leave a comment

Anxiety and fear, as Japanese realise the radiation fallout effects of Fukushima

VIDEO http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/06/08/6815027-japans-radiation-fallout-a-monster-you-cant-see?chromedomain=dailynightly Japan’s radiation fallout ‘a monster you can’t see World Blog Robert Bazell 8 June “….as one gets closer to the reactor site, it’s easy to see how much human damage a radiation leak can cause. As one engineer told me, “When nuclear reactors fail, they REALLY fail.”….. Levels in the air are two to 50 times the normal level. Radiation levels are high even in populous cities of 400,000 or more people – such as Koriyama and Fukushima City – each about 35 miles from the reactors. Most of the radiation escaped in the first few days of the accident and was deposited on the ground –in school yards, on people’s homes and in massive amounts in the farmlands that make up most of the area. The government monitors the levels in the air at seven sites in Fukushima Prefecture, but radiation falls in particles, and a very high levels can remain in one place, while just a few feet away there’s very little.

No one knows what the long-term effects of the radiation will be. The health dangers of elevated but relatively low levels of radiation remains one of the biggest disputes in medicine. Residents worry about the effects on themselves, and on their children especially. Farmers fear the crops they are planting this spring will never come to market after the fall harvest. And everyone knows there is no end in sight to the crisis. As Hideo Hanai, a cattle farmer, told me “It’s like being chased by a monster that you can’t see.” http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/06/08/6815027-japans-radiation-fallout-a-monster-you-cant-see?chromedomain=dailynightly

June 9, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, Japan | Leave a comment

Future human generations are affected by nuclear radiation

Ionising radiation – the kind that comes out of bombs and nuclear power plants – has been shown to alter sex ratios in fruit flies and mice, says Karl Sperling, of the Institute for Human Genetics at the University of Berlin. He suspects that radiation exposures might affect DNA in the first few cell divisions around the time of conception, which is known to be a highly vulnerable period.

If radiation can influence sex ratios in this way, he adds, there might be reason to be concerned about other environmental exposures, too.

Nuclear radiation affects future generations, 8 June 2011, ABC Radio Emily Sohn After exposure to nuclear radiation events, women may be more likely to give birth to boys than to girls, suggests a new study. Continue reading →

June 9, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, health | Leave a comment

VIDEO: Nuclear weapons proof plane for US President and top staff

..http://abcnews.go.com/US/doomsday-plane-save-president-joint-chiefs-apocalypse-scenario/story?id=‘Doomsday Plane’ Would Save President and Joint Chiefs in Apocalypse Scenario, VIDEO By MICHAEL MURRAY, June 7, 2011, In the event of nuclear war, a powerful meteor strike or even a zombie apocalypse, the thoroughly protected doomsday plane is ready to keep thepresident, secretary of defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff and other key personnel in the air and out of danger. It may not deflect a Twitter photo scandal, but it can outrun a nuclear explosion and stay in the air for days without refueling….13782736

June 9, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA | Leave a comment

Legal moves against nuclear power in Japan

Opposition to nuclear power plants grows in Japan , People’s World, 8 June 11 Japan Bar Assn. calls for end to nuclear power plants The Japan Bar Association at its general meeting in Tokyo on May 27 adopted a declaration calling for the phasing out of existing nuclear power plants in Japan and a stop to the program to construct more nuclear reactors.

The declaration requests that the government separate the nuclear safety regulatory body from the nuclear promoting ministry and agency, and promote renewable energy sources as a main pillar to energy policy based on the principle of sustainability.

Residents near Hamaoka plant file lawsuit Residents living near the Hamaoka nuclear power station in Shizuoka’s Omaezaki City on May 27 filed a lawsuit against Chubu Electric Power Company with the Shizuoka District Court, seeking a permanent shutdown of all reactors at the plant.

The group of plaintiffs consists of 35 residents, including two Japanese Communist Party members of the Kakegawa City Assembly, in Omaezaki, Kikukawa, and Kakegawa cities located within a 30km-zone of the plant. JCP member of the Omaezaki City Assembly Shimizu Sumio heads the group of plaintiffs.

They aim for the decommissioning of the reactors at the earliest possible date, arguing that the Hamaoka plant is located at the focal region of an inevitable Tokai earthquake…http://peoplesworld.org/opposition-to-nuclear-power-plants-grows-in-japan/

June 9, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, Legal | Leave a comment

Concentrated Solar Power easily outcompetes nuclear power

Concentrated Solar Power CSP easily out competes nuclear, providing some of the safest energy applications we have today – a technology that’s more quickly deployed, comparatively very cost effective, creating jobs, while promoting a healthier future.

CSP – The Solar Alternative That Rivals Nuclear, June 7, 2011 by Anja Atkinson, The Energy Collective “….Creative applications in Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) specifically are providing energy solutions that accomplish what nuclear does – transfer heat, using the sun as fuel. Continue reading →

June 9, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, renewable | Leave a comment